Identical in appearance, but diametric opposites in personality, Patty and Cathy Lane are back for more fun and antics with the second hysterical season of The Patty Duke Show, starring Academy Award-winner Patty Duke (The Miracle Worker), William Schallert and Jean Byron (The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis), Paul O Keefe and Eddie Applegate.
For the first time, all 36 laugh-filled episodes of the off-the-wall sophomore season are now available for you to own in one 6-DVD collection!
“Don’t touch that dial, please,” Sammy Davis Jr. urges viewers. “This is The Patty Duke Show.” How Sammy Davis, then knocking ‘em dead on Broadway in Golden Boy, came to appear in an episode of The Patty Duke Show is just one of the delightful surprises of the second season, which aired in 1964-65. Another is the episode featuring Chad & Jeremy as an unknown British musical duo whom Patty helps get their big break. And that’s Sal Mineo who renders Patty speechless in the episode “Patty Meets a Celebrity.” But the effervescent Duke gives this tailor-made star vehicle all the wattage it needs in her iconic dual role as typical suburban teen Patty and her more “solid, four on the floor” cousin Cathy. As the classic theme song says, they’re identical cousins, “one pair of matching bookends, different as night and day.” Perhaps incorrectly remembered as a trading-places sitcom, The Patty Duke Show is brimming with teen spirit. The energetic and resourceful Patty is a whirlwind of mad crushes, schemes, and shenanigans that invariably backfire. The great William Schallert costars as Patty’s father, Martin, a sage voice of reason whom TV Guide ranked among TV’s top 40 dads. Paul O’Keefe is Ross, the quintessential smart-alecky younger brother. Beyond the spunky charms of its star, there is much to dig about The Patty Duke Show, including the ’60s teen lingo (“gonesville”) and time capsule references to the Beatles, President Johnson, and the breakup of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis (Broadway buffs will get a charge as Patty walks past a gallery of posters for then-current hits Hello Dolly!, Fiddler on the Roof, Barefoot in the Park, and others in the Sammy Davis episode). Bonus features include a segment about the technical wizardry that made Duke’s dual role so convincing and newly filmed public service announcements in which Duke reprises her roles as Patty and Cathy on behalf of Social Security. In the episode “This Little Patty Went to Market,” Patty sells stock in herself. Patty Lane, Inc., may be a bust, but this boxed set is a wise investment that will only appreciate with age. “Are you sure there’s a demand for it?” her brother asks of the “product.” Get with it! The Patty Duke Show is an absolute blast. –Donald Liebenson
Buy “The Patty Duke Show: Season Two” For Only $28.84
March 5, 2010
#1
I remember this series when I was a child. It was one of my favorites. Wednesday evenings were always special because THE PATTY DUKE SHOW was on. Years later, seeing the show, it is still funny and overall very good. My only criticism is that the show was called THE PATTY DUKE SHOW, not The Patty LANE Show. What is a very good series could have been a great one IF the writers paid the same amount of time and attention to the CATHY Lane character. Remember the PARENT TRAP? Equal time was paid to the twins, played first by HAYLEY MILLS and later by LINDSAY LOHAN.
Patty Duke is a wonderful actress and did an incredible job making the two cousins (as well as a third cousin: BETSY) individuals. The Cathy character left us wanting so much more, while the Patty character overstayed her welcome. If only the writers would have given both cousins EQUAL time…It would have been a GREAT series!
March 5, 2010
#2
I bought the first set and I will buy this one as well, been an avid fan forever and watched the show the 60′s. But I wish Shoutfactory would dig up some more photos of the Star. The photo of Duke in the Green Dress is not the most flattering portrait, her face looks thin and her nose dominates, plus it just doesn’t look like the Patty/Cathy Lane character at all. It was all over the DVD discs last time and now they have stuck it on the cover which I suppose they are wanting us to think it is Cathy with Patty on the phone in the background. Right. Sorry, it just doesn’t fly and looks totally faked. Is SF going to keep using the same photos over and over repeatedly? Surely we can get more variety. End of rant.
BTW: Picture quality on the DVDs is great (I watched taped episodes from Nick@nite for years, Ouch, my eyes!) and I do have the Laserdisc as well but thrilled to now have Patty Duke Show on DVD. Hope SF will complete the run, and somehow get the all important Pilot as well b/c you have just got to see that if you are a fan.
March 5, 2010
#3
I enjoyed the First Season of this set and the quality is very good. It’s great to see the entire episodes at their full length of about 25 minutes. I was hoping for the bumper advertisements (“the Patty Duke Show is brought to you by… Breck”, and other stuff like that), like they did on that 8 episode Laser Disc set released years ago, which I still have. That set had Patty and Cathy doing a couple of the Breck commercials. Oh well, we’re lucky to finally get The Patty Duke Show on DVD at all. Beggars can’t be choosers. The best TV shows are always released last. The junk always comes first.
I have watched all 6 discs of Season Two. Discs 1, 5 and 6 have no problems, but discs 2, 3 and 4 have a minor glitch. I have this same problem on another DVD player so it must be these 3 discs. At the menu on disc 3 there is a choice of PLAY ALL or EPISODES. If PLAY ALL is selected, that will take you to the intro teaser and beginning credits of “Best Date In Town”. Then it goes directly to the intro teaser and beginning credits of “Can Do Patty”, then the episode (“Best Date In Town” is skipped). On disc 4, if PLAY ALL is selected the first title, “Patty Meets A Celebrity” is played out correctly, but the second title, “The Raffle” goes through the intro teaser and beginning credits, then jumps to “The Newspaper Game” intro teaser and beginning credits then the episode (“The Raffle” is skipped). This also applies to Disc 2 on “The Greatest Psychologist In The World”. That episode is skipped if PLAY ALL is selected.
This problem for discs 2,3 and 4 can be solved by selecting “EPISODES” and select the first one. When the episode is finished, it goes back to the episode menu, highlights the next one to be played and you just press enter on your remote. No big deal, but this could be a sign of a quality control problem that I hope does not get worse on the Third Season set, assuming Shout Factory does release the last season. Hey, Shout Factory. Please release Season Three with extra extras!
I would love to see bloopers and outtakes of Patty Duke on the set talking to her Director or the other actors and smoking a cigarette while in her Cathy or Patty digs. What a sight that would be! She was eighteen in the middle of Season Two. She was almost twenty when the Third Season ended.
The Patty Duke Show has always been one of my favorite 60′s comfort sitcoms. It’s so damn wholesome and well done. And dig that music. The situational and background music is perfectly suited to the show. Good job, Sid Ramin. And by the way, has anyone noticed that Patty danced like nobody else? I think they call it Patty Duke dancing.
Byeeee!
March 5, 2010
#4
I have just watched the first 4 episodes of the second season (1964-65) of The Patty Duke Show in my Shout Factory DVD set. It’s great! The quality of the video and the sound are excellent. It would be nice to have an added bonus of seeing and hearing that “The Patty Duke Show is brought to you by Breck” – but even without the commercial promos it’s still very much as when I first watched this TV program when I was a kid in the 1960s. The stories for season two are well written and there are several guest stars in season two, such as the very talented vocalist Bobby Vinton and the fine actor Sal Mineo. Two favorite episodes of mine are the sentimental Best Date In Town from December 9, 1964 where Patty is counting on her father to take her to the father & daughter dance but things take an unexpected turn and also the episode It Takes A Heap Of Livin’ from February 24, 1965 where the Lane family home may be taken over by the historical society as it was supposedly an important site during the Revolutionary War – you must see this fine episode. The DVD packaging is nice and colorful with authentic Patty Duke Show photos (you’ll even notice on the cover of the DVD episode guide that Patty and Richard are listening to an LP on a 1964 Webcor record player) and the graphics are very early-mid 1960s which adds to the authentic feeling. Good show! Well, enjoy and in the words of Patty lane, by-eeeeeeeee!
March 5, 2010
#5
I had been waiting for The Patty Duke Show Season 1 to come out for many, many years on DVD. Then SHOUT!FACTORY came to the rescue and gave us a FANTASTIC DVD edtition last September. I pretty much went wild with excitment when I heard this great news. Then, after I had watched ALL the epsodes of Season 1 more than a few times, I began to keep my eye out for Season 2. The day Season 2 became available for pre-order I bought it. Now Season 1 was great because it was the beginning of this great tv show,but Season 2 is even more fun because the producers were able to spend more money on it due to Seaason 1′s success. Therfore, we get the famous folk-rock duo Chad and Jeremy playing downtrodin’ would-be british invasion stars named Nigel and Patrick.The Patty Duke Show is one of the most enduring sitcoms of the 1960s because of its clean, wholesome stories and beautiful acting. Pick up a copy of this great DVD set! You will NEVER be sorry you did!